United and Divided
by Librana
Summary: Six weeks before Junior Prom, events begin to unfold that will have life-changing consequences for Kim, Ron, Tara and Josh. The beginning of my AU as described in my short stories "You promised we would get through this" and "A little Ronshine in her life". Chapter 5 will appear soon - apologies for the delay everyone - real-life has got in the way.
1. Chapter 1 - Change of Strategy

**This is the beginning of the AU first described in my short stories "You promised we would get through this" and "A little Ronshine in her life". They contain spoilers for what this story will eventually become, but if you are as interested in the journey as the destination then your enjoyment shouldn't be diminished by having read those already.**

**All Kim Possible characters and settings are the property of the Disney Corporation.**

**CHAPTER 1 – Change of Strategy**

**Junior Year. Six days before the Middleton Days parade. Somewhere in the Swiss Alps.**

A thick pall of dust filled the air as Drew Lipsky, aka Dr. Drakken, mad genius inventor and wannabe world-ruler contemplated the destruction of yet another lair and yet another plan for world domination. He stood amid an eerie silence, surrounded by the twisted carcass of his latest death-dealing device, now little more than scrap metal. His green-skinned accomplice had fled when the ceiling started falling in, but he had chosen to remain – the captain refusing to desert his sinking ship.

He brushed some fragments of plaster from his hair.

_I was rather fond of this lair as well. I'd just got it comfortable when …_

For the first time since he had encountered his long-time teen foe, the blue-skinned villain began to seriously doubt whether he would ever make the front page of _Villains Monthly._ Or gain any respect from his short-tempered sidekick. Let alone take over the planet.

_Why does it always go wrong?_

A single tear trickled down his cheek as he thought about the previous twenty minutes.

_Shego stared at the impressive-looking device that was set up in the middle of the main hall of the lair. A gleaming metal cylinder was topped by a thick rod surrounded by copper coils and capped by a ceramic insulator pierced by a sharp point. Electricity arced between the coils, and the smell of ozone filled the air, giving the mechanism the look and feel of something that Victor Frankenstein might have come up with, at least in the horror movies she was so keen on._

_Set into the base was a three-position lock, into which a plastic key was inserted. The key was currently set to the "Power Up" position, awaiting the decision to arm the device. Next to the key was a digital display, currently showing that the device was seventy per cent charged._

_She turned to face her employer, who was studying her from across the room._

"_So what is this piece of junk supposed to do, Dr. D?" she queried snarkily. "Looks like the world's largest helter-skelter." Drew Lipsky looked pained. "Now Shego, what did we agree about hurtful words?" She sniggered - how many times had they had this conversation?_

_He continued. "This is no piece of junk. This will bring the world to its knees"._

_Sure it will Dr. D, sure it will. Just like the last plan. And the one before that. And before that. And … _

_She stopped listening to him and contemplated her forthcoming vacation in Bermuda._

_Oblivious to her lack of enthusiasm, Dr. Drakken dug himself into a deeper hole. "Of course I can't expect a mere ignorant sidekick to appreciate the brilliance of my plan. That's why I do the inventing and you do the stealing."_

_That's it! She gave him a glare and a green glow appeared around her hands. Drew backed off._

"_Take that back", she hissed. Drakken looked like a rabbit in the headlights._

_He was saved by a loud ring that sounded like an elevator arriving. The two of them looked across at the device, which was now displaying "Fully Charged" and emitting a low hum._

"_Alright Shego, it's time to show the world that they must bow down to Doctor Drakken". He indicated a hand-held television camera by the side of the main control console. Pushing down her anger, Shego picked up the camera and switched it on, standing a few yards in front of her boss and framing him in the viewfinder. The image of Dr. Drakken appeared on a large video display fixed to the wall of the lair._

_Half a dozen henchmen spilled into the room to witness their boss' latest threat. Several were unable to suppress a yawn. The signal to attend their employer had come during their rest period. Drakken scowled at the arrivals, noting for the first time their lack of fitness and general state of obesity._

_Perhaps I shouldn't have gone for Jack Hench's bargain basement offer after all?_

_But after this I will be able to afford some decent henchmen!_

_The mad scientist pushed a button on the console and nodded to his assistant. Around the world, people reacted in bored resignation as their favorite TV program was replaced by the image of Drew Lipsky for what must have been the tenth time that year._

"_I am Doctor Drakken" he announced to the camera. "And beside me" – the camera panned to the left – "is my doomsday device that I will unleash on the world unless you accept my rule! Submit, or else." He stepped back from the camera._

"_Hey, Dr. D, aren't you supposed to tell them what your device will do if they don't submit?" Shego's voice was picked up by the camera and in households around the globe, eyes rolled._

"_Ah yes.", he flustered. Trying to regain his authority he stood up straight and faced the camera again. "This device is my very own invention, the World Orthogonally-Oriented Heliographic Projector, or WOOHP for short. When I turn this key" – he pointed to the base of the device –"a beam of pure solar energy will emerge from the top of the device and turn any city of my choosing into dust!" _

"_Er, Dr. D, what key?"_

_Why I am surrounded by idiots?_

"_That key right there, Shego!"_

_Drakken glowered at the wall display which was showing a close-up of the WOOHP. The charge status display and the lock were clearly visible, but the lock was empty._

"_Someone has stolen the key!" he shouted, looking daggers at the henchmen gathered around the door. They stared at each other in confusion. _

_Until one of them pointed towards the right hand wall, where a pink shape was rapidly disappearing into the shadows, with the unmistakable shape of a key held in its teeth._

"_Shego, get that hairless freak!" Drakken fumed._

_A sound from above caused everyone's attention to shift upwards, and the viewers at home were treated to the sight of two teens in mission clothes and gloves rappelling down ropes from the air-conditioning vent. As they hit the ground, the naked mole-rat ran up to the blond boy and jumped into his waiting hand, dropping the key into Ron's palm. Television images returned to regular programming around the world as Shego dropped the camera and growled at the new arrivals._

_Kim Possible smirked at the pair of villains. "You know, Rufus did not appreciate that crack."_

"_The little dude holds a grudge" added her grinning companion._

"_Kim Possible!" Drakken ranted. "How? Where ..?"_

_Shego closed her eyes and counted to three. "Why are you __always__ surprised at her arrival?"_

"_You're busted, Drakken" the flame-haired hero called to her arch-enemy. "Come quietly and we can all get home in time for American Starmaker."_

"_You're not going to stop me this time, Kim Possible and whateveryournameis! My WOOHP is perfect". Even the henchmen were sniggering at this point._

_The heroes glanced at each other and shrugged. The blue maniac was behaving true to form._

"_Seems like we'll have to put the coco moo on hold", Kim mouthed to Ron. Turning back to Drakken, she sighed, "Okay, let's do this the hard way."_

"_Get them." – simultaneously from Kim and Dr. Drakken._

_The resulting fight was short-lived. Team Possible went into a well-oiled routine. While Kim engaged Shego and sought to disable the WOOHP, Ron and Rufus took on the role of distraction and mayhem-making. As Ron raced towards the henchmen, Rufus jumped on to Drakken's shoulder and bit him hard on the ear, causing the villain to shriek in pain and slap fruitlessly at his neck, stumbling away from the control console._

_Seeing a suicidal boy running straight at them, the henchmen gawked at each other. One, newer than the rest, took a swing at Ron as he came closer, but the boy ducked and slid between the man's legs only to land his right fist in a sensitive part of the henchman's anatomy. The unfortunate man issued a yelp of pain and collapsed, clutching his aching groin as he curled into a fetal position._

_The other henchmen knew better than to get involved in a one-sided battle and tried to slip away before they would be noticed. Drakken's health cover for his employees was notoriously poor and no-one wanted to be the next recipient of a painful blow._

_Finding himself unopposed, Ron ran toward the unguarded console and started hitting buttons. Rufus jumped from Drakken's neck and climbed back into Ron's pocket._

_Meanwhile, Shego was still furious with her boss and was taking it out on Kim, firing green plasma balls uncontrollably at the teen hero. Kim dodged them easily as she worked her way steadily toward the WOOHP. In her growing temper, Shego failed to notice the damage she was doing to the room as her blasts tore great chunks out of the walls. As Kim arrived at the doomsday device, she ducked as a particularly large plasma ball headed her way. Everyone stopped as a blinding flash indicated the collision of the plasma ball with the humming machine._

"_Nooooo!" cried Drakken as the WOOHP burst into flames and an electric spark arced to the ground, igniting everything in its path. A groaning sound signaled the imminent demise of the device._

"_Thanks for doing my job for me, Shego!" The green-skinned woman glared murderously at her opponent._

"_Kim", Ron called from the console. "I think I've found the self-destruct button". _

"_No, Ron", Kim yelled at him across the room. "Remember the plan! Disable not destroy."_

_Global Justice were clear in their instructions. They wanted the lair intact so they could examine Drakken's newest toys. Ron's task was to shut down the lair's defenses and keep Drakken from his latest mad invention._

"_Okay Kimmila, nil problemo" the boy shouted back as he turned back to the console, failing to notice a cable strung at shin height between the console and the disintegrating WOOHP. As his leg caught the cable, he lost his balance and fell forward onto the control panel, flinging his arms out to save himself. _

_Sirens sounded as the lair prepared to bury its secrets. _

"_Ron, you .. you .."_

"_Oops, sorry Kim". Ron looked embarrassed._

_She looked angrily across at her contrite sidekick. "Ron, can't you get it right just once!" she hissed at him. He winced as if slapped across the face._

_Shego looked between the two of them with surprise. She knew that the buffoon was clumsy but that was harsh._

_Kim Possible pursed her lips as she scrutinized the chaos around her. No point in trying to arrest them now. In any event, Global Justice had pretty much stopped bothering incarcerating Dr. Drakken. These days, they were focused on what they saw as the real threats._

"_Time to leave", she called to the blond sourly. The pair headed for the exit, leaving the two villains to stare at each other, surrounded by explosions._

"_Er, Dr. D, we need to get out of here fast." Shego gazed fearfully at the ceiling which was showing cracks that widened as she watched._

"_You go, Shego. I'll be … right behind." She looked at him sharply, his defeated tone so uncharacteristic of the always-optimistic would-be world ruler._

_Shego felt a loathing for the meddling teen who had brought her employer to such a state as she ran out through the nearest door._

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Kim and Ron sat in silence in the rear of the cargo plane that Wade had arranged to pick them up from outside Drakken's lair. The pilot, Captain Avery, had waved away Kim's thanks for the lift.

"_It's the least I could do after you safely landed my plane in a sand-storm in the Sudan without the undercarriage last year"_.

Kim pointedly stared out of the window while Ron fiddled nervously with his seat belt. Rufus sat between them looking at Kim with an uncomfortable expression on his pink face.

"I said I was sorry, Kim. About tripping up." Ron broke the silence. He was painfully aware that this accident was only the latest in a long line of pratfalls. At least this time his pants had stayed on.

Rufus looked hopefully at Kim. She sighed and turned back to them.

Her face softened. "I know, Ron. And I'm sorry I harshed on you." She smiled thinly at Ron's look of relief.

_But I need a reliable sidekick, and you're not stepping up to the plate at the moment. I just know what Bonnie would say if she knew about this._

Kim changed the subject. "Well at least we won't have to worry about Drakken and Shego for a while. It'll take them weeks to sort out a new lair."

_Maybe I can start thinking about who might be my date for the Prom._

Thoughts of the Prom reminded her of something she was intending to share with Ron, but hadn't had the opportunity to do before the encounter with the villains. She had been talking to Monique earlier that day.

"_Hey girlfriend, have you heard the DMG?"_

"_DMG?"_

"_Yes, the daily mega-goss" her friend gestured impatiently. "About Tara."_

"_What about Tara?" Kim was intrigued. The blonde cheerleader rarely featured in the school gossip._

"_Well, Crystal told me that she had heard Marcella and Hope talking about Tara."_

"_And?" Kim prompted._

"_Apparently, Tara told Marcella that she really admires Ron."_

"_That's old news, Mon. Ever since Camp Wannaweep, she's had a soft spot for him."_

_Monique waved her down. "No, it's more than that, Kim – Marcella reckons that Tara actually like-likes Ron and she hopes he'll ask her to the Prom!"_

_What? Her Ron? The subject of Tara's affections?_

"_Kim, you know how dense Ron can be. He's clueless about girls. You've got to find a way to tell him that Tara is interested, and needs a date for the Prom. I know it's not for another six weeks but the poor girl deserves to know where she stands."_

"_Yes, you're right, Mon. I'll do that later."_

_Monique walked away satisfied, leaving Kim looking thoughtful._

She looked up at Ron, who was swapping funny faces with Rufus. "Hey, Ron .." she started.

"Hey KP, fancy a naco at Bueno Nacho when we get back?" Ron had already forgotten about the froideur between them only minutes earlier. "I'm in the mood for a double helping of cheese." "Cheeese!" chirped the naked mole-rat rubbing his stomach in anticipation.

Kim watched the two of them. She normally found their banter entertaining but today his behavior just felt childish. Her earlier anger rose again to simmer just below the surface. _It's really time you grew up, Ron, and took responsibility for your life. I can't watch your back all the time._

"What were you going to say, Kim?" Ron asked as he noticed her pause.

"Oh, nothing important."

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Dr. Drakken's mind returned to the present.

_It was such a good plan, too,_ he thought. And it would have worked, if only that interfering teen hero hadn't shown up just at the wrong moment. Ten minutes later and things could have been so different.

_Oh, who am I kidding? Kim Possible __always__ foils my plans._

_Maybe I'm getting too old for this?_

_Or maybe I'm just not smart enough?_

Shego felt a pang leaving her boss behind, but she rationalized to herself that he'd be okay – he always was. Heck, no job was worth getting killed over. Her last sight of her employer as she ran through the door was of an oddly-dignified man standing motionless, but tall and proud amid the wreckage of his latest dream.

Running into the lair's anteroom, she climbed the wall-mounted ladder which provided access to the escape hatch set into the ceiling. Twisting the large handle, she entered the inviting escape tunnel but stopped as she heard the sound of a massive cave-in from the hall she had just vacated. She hesitated, torn between her instinct to flee and her ill-timed conscience.

_Snap, I can't just leave him in there._

Cursing her uncharacteristic weakness she dropped down to the floor and made her way back into the main hall of the lair, fearing the worst and expecting to find her boss lying on the ground covered in rubble.

She was surprised to find him standing in the same place as she had left him, apparently unaffected by the devastation that the combination of self-destruct mechanism and overloaded WOOHP had wrought.

_How?_

"Dr. D?" she called hesitantly.

"Ah, Shego. I'm glad to see you're okay." His words were warm, though his face was expressionless. Despite her relief that he was apparently physically all right she felt concerned for his well-being.

"Me? What about you? I thought you'd been buried. Are you hurt?"

Now she was closer she could recognize that apart from some dust in his hair, he was completely unscathed.

"No, Shego, I'm fine." He sounded anything but.

She was puzzled. "How did you escape the cave-in?"

"Oh .." he said distantly. "That was my PFF."

_PFF? _"What's a PFF for heaven's sake?"

"My personal force-field. I activated it as soon as the ceiling started collapsing."

She gaped open-mouthed at her boss. "You invented a personal force-field? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Must have slipped my mind. Sorry Shego."

"So how long have you had this?"

The blue-skinned man looked vague. "I don't know. I invent so many things I lose track."

Shego looked at Drakken, noting the sadness in his eyes. Somewhere in all the time she had been with him, she had become more than just an employee. She actually cared about his welfare. Darn it.

_Maybe it's time we __both__ took a vacation?_

She came to a decision.

"Dr. D?" She hesitated. He looked at her expectantly.

"Maybe it's time to get smart and give up the villain game?"

_Before you get really hurt._

She warmed to her theme, "Look, just think what you could achieve going legit. The …" – W_hat did he call it? Oh yes! _– "_… _PFF alone would be worth a fortune. You'd have people queuing up to license it."

_And we could forget all about Little Miss Priss._

Getting no response, Shego contemplated her boss. He appeared to be in deep thought but his eyes had a glitter that had been missing previously.

"Say that again, Shego!" He appeared animated by something she'd said.

"Er, I said that you could make millions from your force-field."

"No, before that."

_Huh?_

"I was saying that maybe it's time to call it a day with the villainy."

"No, before that. You said I'd be wise to .."

"Yes, it's time you got smart and …"

"That's it, Shego. You are brilliant!" His face was transformed as a broad beam banished the defeated look that had taken hold earlier. "Now, let me see if I can remember …". His face screwed up in concentration.

_What did I just say? Whatever it was, it seems to have brought the old Drakken back._

"Ah yes! Project Phoebus!"

_Project what?_

"Shego, pack up. We're heading out!"

"Are we retiring?"

"Retiring? Of course not! Whatever gave you that idea? No, we are really going to win next time!"

_That's the vacation on hold then._

"Where are we going, Dr. D?"

Drakken smiled mysteriously. "Des Moines, Iowa, Shego. I have some unfinished business there."

"And then we will prepare for the new world order and the final destruction of Team Possible."

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**Author's Note: **WOOHP sort of belongs to Marathon Media. The key probably belongs to James Cameron.


	2. Chapter 2 - A New Threat

**CHAPTER 2 – A new threat**

**Global Justice headquarters, near Middleton. The next morning.**

Elizabeth Director, Head of Global Justice, looked up from her desk at the sound of knocking on her door. "Come in" she called.

The door opened and a red-haired teen walked through, looking tired.

"Hello, Dr. Director. You wanted to see me?"

"Thanks for coming so soon, Kim" the older woman answered, indicating that Kim should sit down on the comfortable chair at the conference table across the room. She gathered up some papers from her desk and joined Kim at the table, sitting directly opposite her. She looked appraisingly at the girl, noting the dark shadows under her eyes.

"First things first. Any injuries from your mission?" she enquired carefully.

"No, nothing to speak of. A few scratches and bruises when Drakken's gizmo exploded. Nothing a hot bath couldn't put right. Shego didn't even get a near miss on me this time." She smiled at the memory.

_And if she had hit me, her plasma balls would have stung like fury. Shego's firepower may not be lethal but she can certainly be painful._

It was a good job that Global Justice didn't realize how close she had come to some serious pain last night else they might ban her from further missions with them. Shego appeared totally out of control in a way that she hadn't seen before. She seemed genuinely angry and frustrated, which was no fun at all.

_Fun? Yes, fighting Shego is fun. Strange I'd never realized that before. It's like a dance with her – we seem to be playing at trying to hurt each other. No one else comes close to matching me._

_Does Shego deliberately hold back? _The thought popped unexpectedly into Kim's head.

The teen hero had not slept well last night. After she had typed up her mission notes and emailed them to Global Justice, it was almost 11 pm. As she tried to sleep she kept seeing Ron, with arms flailing, falling onto the control console.

_Why did I get so angry? I should long be used to Ron's antics by now. I know he messes up sometimes, but no-one else is there to have my back. And he means well. It's just …._

Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft cough from the GJ boss sitting opposite her.

"Sorry, Dr. Director, just wool-gathering", she apologized.

"You look exhausted, Kim. Is everything all right? Kim nodded, but the GJ chief was not fooled. Betty took a maternal interest in her freelancer. Something was on the young girl's mind.

_This life plays havoc with relationships – romantic and platonic. I should know. If I know Kim Possible, she's worrying about boyfriends. Or a date to her Junior Prom. I've seen the signs too often with my younger agents._

_Am I pushing her too hard? _ The thought passed through her mind, not for the first time.

But now was not the time to go into that.

Betty opened a manila folder in front of her. Kim recognized a copy of her mission note from last night.

"I read your report. Very thorough as always. I see that you gained access without being detected. Drakken's device was neutralized. Any threat it posed was removed. So it looks as though the mission went largely to plan then?" She paused. "Apart from blowing up the lair. That was not supposed to happen was it?" She looked carefully at Kim, noting the furtive look that flashed momentarily across her features.

"Your report says that one of Shego's blasts triggered the self-destruct mechanism. That isn't what happened, is it Kim? I'll warrant that Stoppable had something to do with that. A trip again?"

Kim's hesitation told Dr. Director all she needed to know.

"This isn't why you brought me in here is it? You didn't need me in front of you to review my report". The teen hero looked evenly at her case officer.

Betty planned to return to the subject of Ron Stoppable at a future date, but she had a different motive for pulling in Kim to see her.

"No, Kim, you're right. I need your assistance. And I don't mean a mission."

Kim looked puzzled.

"What I am about to tell you is highly confidential. It's only because it directly affects you that I can mention it at all."

Dr. Director looked seriously at the teen as she opened a second folder marked SECRET, and pulled out a letter marked with the distinctive crest of the United Nations. She began.

"This is a letter received from the UN last week, informing us that the Global Justice budget is under review as a result of funding withdrawals by the BRIC countries. It seems that Brazil, Russia, India and China feel that far too much of GJ's work is for the benefit of the US and its government. They are sceptical about what they see as spurious threats of world domination by lone madmen, and want us to focus on organised crime, especially financial crime. They claim financial stringency at home."

Kim looked shocked at the older woman. Didn't these people realise that the threats she dealt with on a daily basis were real and would affect all the world's governments? Surely that was what GJ was set up for? Interpol and similar agencies could deal with the more conventional threats.

Director could read the expression on Kim's face. "I know it seems crazily short-sighted but that's what you get when you are funded by an international organisation. Especially when times are tough. You'll appreciate of course that if word got out to the criminal community that GJ was strapped for funds, all manner of mayhem would ensue. It is essential that this information remain secret and on a need-to-know basis only."

"Of course, I can see that. So where do I come into this?" Kim asked warily. "Are you saying you can't justify having me any longer?"

"No Kim. Though some of the GJ Council were querying your value for money, I pointed out to them that we don't pay you a salary, and your expenses are insignificant compared to the costs we would incur if we used our own people exclusively. They saw the light fairly quickly."

Betty noted the look of relief on Kim's face. She was aware that Kim very much valued being connected to GJ, even though she fiercely guarded her independence.

_Just the qualities we need for a future director of Global Justice._

"No. To cut a long story short, we are going to be very squeezed on resources in future, and we will need to prioritize our activities, focusing our efforts on the most dangerous threats. I am proposing to downgrade Drakken and Shego's threat status from Grade B to Grade C but before I finalize this decision, I wanted to ask your opinion of the threat posed by Drakken. You have encountered him more than any of my own agents, and I trust your judgment."

She turned to the wall behind her and pressed the button on an intercom. "Doctor Du, can you come to my office right away, please."

Kim paled. _Not Will Du as well! And since when did he become a PhD?_

Turning back to Kim, she explained. "Dr. Du is one of our leading psychological profilers. I want her to hear your words as well."

_Her?_

She turned as the door opened, admitting an attractive brunette woman who looked to be aged around 25, carrying a clipboard. She was wearing a smart business suit, paired with blue-sheened stockings and comfortable shoes. A white blouse buttoned up to her neck gave her the appearance of severity, but this was belied by the brilliant smile that lit up her face as she saw Kim.

"Kim Possible! I've heard so much about you from my brother. He is a great admirer of yours!"

_Your brother? And an admirer? Am I going mad?_

Betty looked amused at Kim's discomposure. "Will is not all he may appear, Kim. Off duty, his true feelings come out. But let me introduce you to his sister, Dr. Candace Du."

"My friends call me Can" the newcomer hastened to add. "Please feel free to do the same."

Betty Director called them both to attention. "Kim, give us your opinion of Drakken."

The teen hero thought carefully before responding.

"Well, he clearly is some sort of genius if he is able to invent these crazy devices all the time. However, he relies heavily on Shego to source him parts for his inventions. Without her help he would be just a raving madman, to be honest. If you could separate them, get Shego back on the straight and narrow…"

"Is he a threat? With Shego. Not that we haven't thought about how to split them up." Betty prompted.

Kim paused for thought.

"He's never got close to succeeding. He doesn't seem to be able to think through his plots. We are able to out-think him every time. It seems to me that he has a need to prove something to the world. I know that he bears a grudge against Dad and his other school-mates and he appears unable to get past that."

She recalled the look on his face last night as his lair went up in flames.

"He's actually a rather pathetic character. He seemed yesterday to be on the verge of packing it all in."

She considered, and summed up her view.

"I don't think his heart is really in villainy. He's still a potential threat at some level, but if I were you I'd redirect your efforts elsewhere. And maybe try and open a channel to Shego."

Dr. Director nodded, satisfied. Turning to Can Du she asked. "What do you think about what Kim has said, Dr. Du?"

"I concur" said the psychologist. "Kim's comments are consistent with our profile." She looked down at her clipboard. "Childish, easily distracted, but surprisingly empathetic …"

_Why does that remind me of someone?_

"… narcissistic, paranoid, squeamish about receiving or inflicting pain, a mechanical genius but with limited social skills. Unable to follow through. However, with the potential should he ever get his act together, to be a great force for evil .. or for good."

_Zorpox or Potential Boy?_

"And what about Shego? Could we prise her away from Drakken?"

Candace Du considered her notes. "Shego has given hints that her powers are stronger than she lets on. When roused to anger, as evidenced by Kim's report on last night, she can cause some serious damage. Her angry temperament indicates many unresolved past issues, probably related to her brothers. She is extremely bright – perhaps even at Drakken's level – but she is able to apply this in a way that Drakken seems unable to do, making her potentially a greater threat than him. However, she appears to be in the villain business purely for financial reasons, rather than evil _per se _and is also surprisingly loyal to her boss given that she has put up with his idiosyncrasies for so long. Given the right inducement, in particular immunity from prosecution and a promise of leniency for Drakken, I consider that she would be prepared to give up the villain life. But it would be a significant risk and she would need to be monitored closely for at least a year."

"Thank you, Doctor. You and Kim have confirmed my own assessment. We will put the two of them on a watch list but for the time being we will not take any proactive action to locate them. You may return to your work, Doctor Du."

"Yes, Ma'am," Can Du smiled at Kim as she turned towards the door. Once she had left, Dr. Director returned her attention to Kim.

"Kim, now that we have that out of the way, I want to turn your attention to a greater threat."

She indicated a third file in front of her.

"About three months ago we started getting indications from our deep-cover contacts that Professor Dementor was planning something spectacular. What it was remains unknown, except that his known associates were identified as seeking to acquire a substance called JT-3 from a renegade Chinese general in Shanghai. We have been unable to establish what JT-3 is or why Dementor would want it. Dementor himself has completely gone to ground. Attempts to find his whereabouts have proved fruitless. He has completely dropped off the grid, which is very unusual for the man."

She pushed the file across to Kim. "Take this to the safe room and read it – it contains all we know about Dementor. Then bring it back here. I've already sent a secure copy to Wade. Though I suspect that he had it already."

She looked at Kim. "After that, go home and take a week out. Forget about Drakken and Shego, and leave Dementor to us for the next few days. I'm sure you have friends and family to catch up with. And haven't you got the Middleton Days parade coming up? "

Kim reddened. _And isn't that going to be fun, with Bonnie flaunting her new relationship with Brick Flagg. Even Monique seems to be getting closer to Felix – I wonder if the boy will realise her interest in time for the Prom?_

A pang of guilt assailed her as she remembered that she hadn't yet said anything to Ron about Tara's interest.

As Kim left the room, she did not notice the troubled look on Betty Director's face.

**Authors Note:** Although Emotion Sickness came before Bad Boy in Season 3, I have assumed the reverse so that Kim recalls Zorpox during her conversation with Betty Director.


	3. Chapter 3 - Dazed and Confused

**CHAPTER 3 – Dazed and Confused**

"So why are we here, Doctor D?"

Drakken and his dark-haired companion had just arrived at Des Moines airport on a scheduled flight from Geneva. They were travelling incognito as Wanda and Eugene Crumholtz. "Heck, it worked for the Possibles", Drew Lipsky explained to his sidekick when she objected to her alias. Drakken had frustratingly refused to elaborate on his cryptic remarks back in Switzerland and Shego had struggled to contain her curiosity.

They had packed what few possessions remained in the smoking lair before Global Justice arrived. Drakken had found a second Personal Force-Field device, slightly blackened from the flames but still workable. They had managed to slip away just as the sound of GJ's helicopters reached them from the mountaintops.

"Don't call me Doctor D in public, Shego," he hissed to her. "I mean Eugene," he corrected. "Nooo, I meant Wanda. Gah, why is this secret stuff so difficult?" Shego smirked.

During the flight, Drakken's newly-rediscovered confidence had started to wane. Everything seemed so obvious when he was standing in the lair, but now the doubts were setting in. Would it still be there? Would _he_ still be there? Would it even work properly? Shego, sensing his hesitation, had ramped up the snarkiness. When he took the last packet of peanuts, leaving Shego with the crisps which she hated, her annoyance boiled over. The slight tremor of turbulence that hit the plane when the attendant was leaning over her to pass a cup of coco moo to her boss was amplified by a nudge to the hapless girl's back, resulting in the hot chocolate milk pouring into Drakken's lap. The look on his face was priceless and Shego sniggered to herself as the young woman apologized profusely to her fellow passenger.

However, he had seemed to revive as the flight commenced its descent over the cornfields of Iowa. And once they had been waved through the immigration check and were safely in the arrivals lounge, he had visibly relaxed. Somehow, being back in the United States felt right. And his precious PFFs had made it safely into the baggage collection area.

_Maybe I'll base my new operation in Middleton? Bet the annoying teen wouldn't think of looking for them so close to home! And I can get to see mother occasionally. She's hasn't forgiven me for forgetting Mother's Day this year._

"All in good time, Shego," her companion assured her. "We must get going now. Project Phoebus awaits. And it's essential that we don't let anyone know that we are here."

_For this I am delaying my vacation?_

They hailed a cab, which took them downtown to a nondescript warehouse adjoining an obvious military establishment. The latter was heavily guarded, with marines posted at intervals along the visible wall. Undoubtedly, the other walls were equally well guarded. Except that on the left hand side, the wall adjoined the building they were now standing outside.

"So where are we?" Shego was itching for some explanation and action after a ten-hour flight cooped up with her annoying companion.

"Don't you remember, Shego? We paid this place a visit a couple of years ago." She looked blank. Drakken had raided so many "secret labs" that they all tended to blend into one. It was not as if any one of the raids had led to anything useful. But she wouldn't admit to not recalling this particular place.

"And how are we supposed to get in without being detected?" All their high-tech equipment had been lost in Switzerland. Apart from some clothes and a bit of cash, the only useful things they possessed were two PFFs. And those would only be useful if they were discovered, which would invalidate the whole exercise. Likewise she could hardly use her plasma to blast her way in – there would be no better way to attract unwanted attention.

Drakken beckoned her towards the entrance of the warehouse. Quietly, they made their way through the door, which though locked yielded easily to a pulse of plasma that weakened the metal enough to allow them to push the lock ajar. While this might raise some suspicions if subsequently discovered, the effect was similar to what a standard Hench lock-buster would have produced.

The nefarious pair walked through the unoccupied warehouse to the far wall, which abutted the military laboratory. Stopping at the wall, Drakken indicated to Shego that she should put on the PFF.

"This is our way into the lab, Shego. Through this wall."

Shego looked puzzled. "How does this gizmo help us get through the wall?"

Drakken gave her a smug grin. "I haven't told you everything about the PFF," he admitted. "How do you think it works?"

"Don't know and don't care." Shego was getting increasingly frustrated with Drakken's temporizing. "Just get on with it and tell me how we are going to use this thing to get through that," pointing to the wall of the warehouse.

"Patience, Shego. When I invented the PFF I was looking for something that would increase the strength of the van der Waals forces between oxygen molecules. That's the force field effect. The strengthened inter-molecular force prevents anything from penetrating the field. As you know, I was entirely successful with this."

Shego resigned herself to listening to a rant from Drakken about how brilliant he was.

"However, I also discovered the reverse effect. I could so weaken the inter-molecular forces that the molecules within the field created by the PFF would slip through any substance they encountered." The black-haired beauty waited for the explanation.

"In other words," he concluded, "in reverse mode, anyone wearing the PFF and anything they carry inside the field can phase through any obstacle as if it weren't there." He looked pleased with himself.

Shego was stunned. This was even better than the force-field protection.

"So we're gonna just walk through that wall into the lab?"

"Exactly so."

Shego smiled. This was going to be fun!

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Ron Stoppable was not having a good day. It had started off on the wrong footing and gotten worse. Arriving early morning at the Possibles to collect Kim for their customary walk to school, he had been surprised and disappointed to find that she had already left, and according to her mother, was not going to school straight away. Something about an appointment with Global Justice.

Ron said goodbye to Anne Possible and she watched his back as he walked away from her, his shoulders drooping. She felt some concern at the demeanor of what she considered as her third son and wondered if something had happened between the two teens the previous night. Kim had rushed off before even having breakfast, saying that Betty needed to see her before she could go into school. Her mother had noted the girl's tired eyes.

_Ron was accustomed to being the junior partner in their long-standing activities, but recently he was finding this status irksome. He would never be a Kim Possible of course. Her complete disregard for her own safety coupled with confidence that she would never get into a sitch that she couldn't get out of, contrasted starkly with his own awareness of his inadequacies and his fear for her when she took on yet another maniac in his lair. And then of course there were their relative talents. Kim's acrobatic skills, honed by years of cheerleader practice as well as her own natural agility, her expertise in sixteen types of Kung Fu, while maintaining an A average in class. While he, her sidekick, had only mastered the art of distracting the henchmen and less-dangerous villains, and was as likely to fall flat on his face during the middle of a fight as he was to take out his opponent (though he had an excellent track record in the latter, even if most of the time it felt more like luck than planning.)_

_Nevertheless, they were a team, and he felt strongly that both halves of the team needed each other. He had made a solemn promise to Kim's parents when they first started taking on missions that he would always have her back, and he was very proud that she had never been seriously hurt on his watch, even if she had to save him more than her saved her. Indeed, the thought of her getting badly hurt during a mission was what kept his own fears at bay when they dropped into yet another lair. _

He passed the corner of the road that the two friends lived in and started up the main street of their part of Middleton.

He thought back to when they were younger. _There was a time when she looked up to him as her hero. Maybe only for that first day at Pre-K when he saw off the bullies, but he treasured the memory. And for many years after that, through pre-teen and early teens, they were inseparable. The many photos in their parents' albums attested to that. And they were equals. Their first worm-digging expedition together, enjoying the swings in the playground, choosing Rufus, their first day at High School, a shared loathing of Bonnie Rockwaller, days spent shopping in the mall or lying on the beach of Lake Middleton, meals at Bueno Nacho, talking about the future when a month apart at Camp Wannaweep seemed like a lifetime._

_Then came their early missions. That first mission where Kim deactivated the lasers, and he, Ron, talked Kim into doing this more seriously. Laughing together in Bueno Nacho as they recounted to each other the idiocy of their most recent opponent, Kim exuding an aura of invincibility that energized her sidekick. Those days he didn't care about anything other than seeing the excitement in her face when she related their latest success to her parents._

_The one thing they truly shared – that feeling of being fully alive when on a mission. His normal life – the poor grades, the bullies in D-Hall, the chaotic home life with his parents perennially travelling – faded into the background when he was fighting the good fight. At times like that, Ron Stoppable felt good about himself, and the crazy unlikelihood of the most popular girl in school being his best friend didn't seem as unbelievable as it did when he was lying in his bed at night, contemplating his life._

_Things had started to change, he realized, when the hormones started kicking in. Suddenly, the girl who feared nothing became a pool of slush when approached by a cute boy like Josh Mankey. His status as Best Friend Forever was no longer enough. Kim was looking for a Boyfriend as well, someone who would make her feel feminine and desirable. The incident at the Spirit Dance still rankled, though he had always been careful to play down his hurt. Ron was still her regular companion, but their relationship had subtly morphed into something closer to that of brother and sister. These days it was Monique she confided in more than him. Maybe that was a girl-thing but he couldn't help but be unhappy about the shifting sands of their long relationship._

Best friend status these days seemed to be mostly about missions.

And these were beginning to get a bit uncomfortable for him. Crawling along behind her in the air-conditioning vents, he couldn't help but notice that she had a very cute butt. He was not immune to hormones either, and sometimes wondered if there was any chance that Kim might see him in BF terms. Not that she'd ever given any signs of encouragement on that score. In any event, his crush was focused elsewhere at the moment.

So when Kim got upset with him, or something happened that emphasized his junior status in the team – like Kim being invited to a GJ meeting without him – he felt worse than unhappy, he felt unsettled. He could not imagine life if something happened to restrict their missions. And his deepest fear – that Kim would one day come to realize that he was a liability and exclude him from Team Possible, or worse still, withhold her friendship from the boy at the bottom of the food chain – was starting to keep him awake at night.

_Maybe I need to get out more?_

The events of the previous night had hardly helped. He cursed his uncanny ability to trip up at precisely the wrong moment, though amazingly, sometimes it appeared to be exactly the right moment. _The Ron Factor,_ GJ had labelled it once – they actually believed that it was an asset. Kim had been so dismissive of the possibility and rather superior – at least for a few minutes – when GJ realized their error.

Kim had been really pissed on the way home. But come on, it was only a case of blowing up the lair! GJ would realize that blowing up lairs was what he did, and it at least kept the bad guys off-balance when their lairs kept going up in flames. _And why do they always put self-destruct buttons in anyway?_

_I wonder what Kim is telling GJ about last night? I bet she's blaming me for the explosion. I mean, I know it was my fault, but Kim could at least take my side!_

_Heck, it __was__ my fault. And I should man up and accept it._

Approaching the school, his thoughts turned to his classmates, and one particular cheerleader. The cheer team, with the exception of Bonnie, were about the only other people in Middleton High (apart from his good pal Felix Renton) who gave him the time of day. For the most part, he only had this level of acceptance provisionally, while he maintained his position as the team mascot. But one bubbly, blonde blue-eyed girl had never failed to greet him with a smile when she came across him in the corridors. He had decided that Tara King was just about the sweetest girl he had ever met, and beautiful with it. If he was honest with himself, he would have to say that he had developed a huge crush on the unattainable goddess. At cheer practice, he often found himself day-dreaming about what it would be like to date Tara. Little did Bonnie know that much of the time the reason he was able to ignore her snarky comments was because he hadn't even heard them.

As Ron rounded the bend into the school playing field, he found himself walking a few paces behind Tara and Josh Mankey who were apparently engaged in deep conversation. Josh's body language was unmistakably that of an interested male. He was nodding furiously as Tara spoke, the girl gesturing with her hands. He saw her face in profile. She was smiling, but a frown appeared to cross her face at something Josh was saying, before settling back into her characteristic repose.

Ron felt deflated at the sight of the pair and slowed down, not wanting them to notice him. He watched as Tara responded to Josh. This time it was Josh's turn to frown. He caught sight of Ron at that moment, and flashed a tight smile at him before walking away, leaving Tara to enter the school by herself.

_What does Josh Mankey have that makes all the girls swoon? I mean, apart from good looks, charm, artistic talent and the reputation of being the only boy to have managed to date Kim Possible?_

He looked forlornly at the back of his crush as she disappeared into the school.

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Tara was feeling awkward as she crossed the threshold into the school hall. She hadn't meant to come on to Josh Mankey like that as they walked to school together. She had thought that she was just being friendly to a fellow classmate, albeit a particularly cute one. She liked Josh and they often shared the last half-mile of the walk to school together as they lived on the same side of town.

And they were getting on famously today, until Josh asked her to accompany him to the Middleton Days parade that weekend as his date. And he hadn't taken her rejection too well. How was she supposed to know that he had a crush on her? He'd never shown it before. If anything, she assumed that he still carried a torch for Kim.

She – and the rest of the school – never did get to the bottom of why Josh suddenly broke it off with Kim and neither was telling. Her friend, Bonnie, of course had a simple answer. "It's obvious, Tara," she had said superciliously, tossing her dark hair to one side. "Josh realized that K was making him look a fool. After all, the stupid girl was hanging around with that loser Stoppable and letting down the reputation of the cheer squad. What self-respecting cheerleader would allow that to happen?"

She looked at Tara closely as if to dare her to disagree.

_Why does she despise Ron so much? If she could only see him as I do. Bonnie, you're so hard to be a friend with sometimes._

"I don't know, Bonnie," Tara said nervously. "Josh is a nice guy. He wouldn't just dump Kim for no good reason."

"No good reason?" the brown-haired girl dismissed Tara's explanation. "I just gave you a good reason."

_You're wrong, Bonnie_, Tara thought, but kept the view to herself. _ I don't believe that Josh thought that way about Kim. I saw him the day after they had broken up. _ If anything, he had seemed more upset about it than she. As if she had done the breaking up.

Bonnie had seen the look of doubt on Tara's face and sniffed. "Why don't you go for Josh yourself, T? I know he's a bit of a geek, but he _is_ cute, and he's high enough on the food chain not to harm your reputation as a cheerleader if you were to date him a few times. So long as he keeps his hands to himself – after all, he's no jock and you don't want the rest of the geek brigade thinking they've got a chance with you, do you?"

_If only you knew, Bonnie, who I really want to date? But I daren't tell you – you'd laugh at me and I really don't want that. I'd hate to have to choose between my friend and my crush. If only you would give him a chance …_

Tara had been crushing on the school outcast for what seemed like forever. She often wished that she had met Ron earlier, before he became joined at the hip to the teen hero. Perhaps he might have noticed _her_.

Shaking her head, Tara collected her textbooks from her locker and headed for her first lesson of the day.

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Drakken and Shego emerged from the wall and found themselves in a corridor with wooden doors on either side, each with a window in the top half. He signaled to her to shut off the PFF.

_That was a very strange sensation – like walking through water but as if you could feel the water inside you as well as around you. But Drakken's crazy idea actually works!_

Drakken started down the corridor with Shego in tow. He looked carefully at the names on the front of each door, stopping outside the door marked _Dr. T Zaruda_. Looking through the glass he could see movement.

"Okay, Shego, it's time for action. Dr. Zaruda in there is going to give us something I need."

Shego grinned at him. "I hope he's not too quick to comply," as her hands glowed.

Not bothering to knock, the two villains burst through the door, taking by surprise the sole occupant. Dr. Zaruda was an archetypal scientist, with receding hairline and thick-lensed glasses topping an ill-fitting suit that had known better days. He was sitting at his desk and looked up with alarm at the pair.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" he demanded, though the effect was rather spoilt by the fearful look on his face as Shego ignited her plasma.

"Project Phoebus," Drakken demanded of the scientist. "Where is it?"

_Oh god, I thought that was dead and buried._

"I ... I don't know what you mean," the hapless man stammered.

"Yes you do, you invented it." The blue-skinned villain was losing his patience. "Seat, helmet, electricity, turned a rodent into a genius. Coming back to you now?"

The frightened scientist looked between the two villains, like a rat in a trap.

"We stopped Phoebus a long time ago," he confessed.

_And I wish we'd never started it!_

"Why?" Shego demanded.

Zaruda looked uncomfortable. "It didn't work properly."

"Seemed alright when that annoying rodent went into it. That's good enough for me. Where is it now?" Drakken snapped.

"I don't know," the scientist pleaded.

"Shego," ordered Drakken. "Help the good doctor to remember."

"Only too pleased to help, Doctor D" she smirked, bringing her plasma ball close to the terrified man's face. "You heard what my boss said. Now spill!"

Zaruda sighed. If he was to escape serious injury he knew he had no choice but to comply.

"They were all dismantled … except for one which was hidden away in the storeroom."

"Take us there," ordered the blue-skinned man. "And no tricks. Shego has an itchy hand."

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Drew Lipsky looked delightedly at the device in front of him. It looked like a cross between a salon hairdryer and an electric chair. A helmet hung from the top, ready to be pulled down over the head of the occupant who would be seated. It had been stashed in the far corner of the large storeroom in the basement of the building but Shego had dragged it into the center of the room adjacent to a power-point. It was plugged in and ready to be activated.

"Remember this, Shego?" he asked.

It had not been until they set eyes on the device that she had recalled what Project Phoebus was all about, and Drakken's references to a genius rodent had suddenly made sense. Something about the brain-waves of a collection of geniuses being stored in the device and transferred to anyone who used it. It had raised a naked mole-rat to an IQ of 184. What would it do to a man who was already brilliant, albeit in a crazy way? And what did this sniveling little man mean about it not working?

A frisson of fear for her boss went through her.

"Doctor D, you're not thinking of using this device are you?" she asked warily.

"I most certainly am, Shego. In fact it was you that suggested it."

"What?"

"Yes, when you told me back in the lair to _get smart_. That is exactly what I intend to do!"

Shego looked at her boss. "But you're smart already."

"No, Shego. I have the brains, but I know that I'm missing a certain _oomph_ to actually make things work out. This device will give me that."

Drakken struck a pose. "And then I will be invincible!"

He turned to the scientist. "Did you solve the problem that the effect wore off after a few days?"

"No," Dr. Zaruda answered. "That was one of the reasons that the project was discontinued."

"And the other?" Shego challenged.

The man looked furtive. "It didn't work consistently," he admitted.

He dare not reveal the real reason why the project was terminated. And why all reference to the program and the unfortunate volunteer prisoners had been struck from the records. No-one else knew that Global Justice had kept a single device intact, for purposes never disclosed.

Drakken appeared not to have noticed the man's hesitation. He walked over to the device and sat down in the seat, strapping himself in. He lowered the helmet over his head and called to Shego to activate the mechanism. Shego remained motionless.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Doctor D?" she asked him, feeling an unnamed fear flood through her.

"Yes, yes, Shego. Now go ahead." The villain was impatient to proceed with his plan. For once, he would not be interrupted by any annoying teen heroes.

_Here goes nothing_, she thought as she depressed the button.

Apart from a flashing light on the top of the helmet, there was no sign that anything was happening. Drakken's face remained in the same manic pose that it had been when he sat down.

"How long?" she demanded.

"It takes about two minutes," the scientist responded.

_And then, please just leave. I swear I'll never say anything to anyone about this!_

As she watched, the light stopped flashing and Shego looked closely at her boss. Was she imagining things or did his eyes look brighter? She went forward to assist him in getting out of the chair.

Drakken looked around him as if seeing the room for the first time.

"Are you feeling alright, Doctor D?" Shego asked carefully.

He didn't respond initially, looking out into the room, his eyes unfocused.

"Of course!" He paused. "Why did I never see that before?" Another pause. "But that was so obvious! If I'd only known!"

A look of glee crossed Drakken's face as he returned his gaze to his sidekick. "Yes, Shego. I am absolutely fine. No, I'm better than fine! Everything makes sense now." He grinned manically. "It worked!"

Shego smiled uncertainly. Drakken sounded different. More confident.

"You know it's going to wear off in a few days, don't you?" she asked.

"Ah Shego, but I have worked out how to make the effect permanent, and as soon as I get to a new lair I'll get that sorted." he smiled. "These stupid scientists didn't realize that using the machine itself gives the ability to figure out how to solve the problems. If they'd only tried it on themselves, they'd have had all the answers."

"Okaaay, Doctor D," Shego said doubtfully.

She pointed to Zaruda, whose expression was one of dread.

"Er, Doctor D. What are we going to do about this moron? You want me to fry him?"

The scientist looked horrified. His eyes pleaded for mercy.

"Shego, we can't let anyone know this place was compromised. So give him a plasma burst to his frontal lobes."

Dr. Zaruda screeched as he found himself firmly held by Shego, who placed a glowing fist to his forehead. He found himself praying as a flash of light burst through his head and everything went black.

When he woke up an hour later in his empty office with a pounding headache, all he could recall was having fallen asleep.

"What next, Doctor D?" Shego asked as they drove away from the laboratory in a car which Shego had purloined from outside the warehouse. The theft would eventually be reported, but they would be far away by then and there was nothing to connect them to the stolen vehicle.

"First off, we need a new lair," Drakken said. "And I know just the way to get one."

"Oh, and Shego, when we do, the first thing I want you to do is booby-trap the air-conditioning units. I can't believe we never thought of that before. The last thing we want is some snooping teenager surprising us."

Another thought struck him. "And I want you to disconnect any self-destruct mechanisms. Much too easy to have them set off unintentionally."

Shego stared at him in disbelief.

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**Author's note:** A longer-than-normal exposition here to set the scene for the dramas to come. Ron is finding it hard to come to terms with his changing relationship with Kim, and he and Tara are unaware that they are crushing on each other. And Drakken starts to look ominously competent less than six weeks before Junior Prom.

Hope you're enjoying the story so far!


	4. Chapter 4 - Crossed Wires

**Chapter 4 – Crossed Wires**

**Professor Dementor's lair: Unknown location**

"Gottverdammte, you stupid machine!" The short, stocky, tunic-clad figure swore at the complicated-looking contraption sitting on the laboratory bench in front of him which had, once again, refused to respond when switched on. He was surrounded by a toolbox and an assortment of electrical tools and equipment – screwdrivers, a set of pliers, solenoids, solder and an ammeter attached by two cables to black and red terminals on the side of the device and which at present was showing zero current flow.

Hissing under his breath, he grabbed a cross-headed screwdriver and opened up the front panel, to be confronted by a mass of colored wires. Peering in he spotted two green shielded cables with their ends bared. Dementor stared for a moment then turned to his toolkit and grabbed a pair of tweezers and a soldering iron which he plugged into a second power socket affixed to the wall in front of him.

The buzz of the scrambler phone on the laboratory shelf distracted his attention as he was about to solder together the two loose wires, causing him to let go of the tweezers. Exasperated, he put down the soldering iron and turned to pick up the receiver.

"Dis had better be important, Myron" he barked into the handset. "I am in the meedle of ze very sensitive verk." He sniffed, and then his face reddened with anger as he realized that he had neglected to switch off the iron, which was now burning a hole in the bench top, evidenced by a small plume of smoke rising into the air and the stench of scorched wood.

"Ach!" – the German-speaking villain dropped the phone and grabbed the soldering iron, yanking it out of the power socket. He turned again to the telephone in a thoroughly foul mood.

"Zo, vot have you got to tell me? Und make it qwikkly," Dementor yelled. If it wasn't for the promise he had made to his sister Hildegard (damn you, dying mother!), he would never have given his hapless brother-in-law the time of day, let alone a position in his organization. At her insistence he had found Myron a job. Largely to get the idiot out of his hair and to get his sister off his back, he had planted his brother-in-law in Jack Hench's operation and tasked him with informing Dementor of any interesting new technology that HenchCo was looking at. This also had the benefit of allowing Dementor to pay him only a modest top-up to the HenchCo salary. Not that Myron ever came up with much – the only role they had managed to get him into without raising suspicion was that of the cleaner in the main office block. But just occasionally he came up with something interesting when loose tongues ignored the silent figure sweeping the floor behind them.

A nervous voice came through the phone. "Professor, I've just heard that HenchCo is about to do a deal with someone called Bertle or something for a gadget called the electromagnetic celery-eater or something. They seem very excited by it."

The villain groaned. Why can't this moron ever give him the proper story? Who in Gottes Namen is Bertle? A thought struck him.

He spoke into the phone. "Did zey zay _Bortel_? Doktor Cyrus Bortel?"

"Um, yes I think that was it," his brother in law replied after a long pause, during which time Dementor was drumming his fingers impatiently on the bench top.

Dementor looked at the part-built machine sitting on his laboratory bench.

"And vos ze gadget an _Electron Magneto Accelerator_?"

"Oh yes, that was what they called it," Myron confirmed.

"Gut, now get back to your verk before zumvun seez you are mizzing," ordered his boss.

Dementor put down the phone and walked over to his device, smiling.

"No more trying to make dis piece of junk verk, if the Herr Doktor has done ze job for me, ja? Time for me to do some _outsorzing_!"

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"You're jealing!" The dusky-skinned beauty stared accusingly at the redhead, her hands on her hips. "And don't say you're not!" The two were standing in front of Kim's locker.

Kim looked sheepishly at her irate friend. She had just confessed that she had _still_ not told Ron about Tara's interest in him, despite several occasions when the two of them were alone. It wasn't that she was angry with him any more. She'd had three days to cool off from that incident, and she realized that she had harshed badly on Ron when they were in Drakken's lair. Her conscience had troubled her enough since then, contributing to her lack of sleep. While she wasn't trying to avoid Ron, she felt embarrassed in his presence. She knew she should apologise properly to him but he seemed to have forgotten about the incident. And she just couldn't bring herself to raise the matter and spoil everything.

But each time they parted, she had realized that she had let slip yet another opportunity to mention Tara to him.

_I'm not jealing! Ron's a friend, not a boy._

"Honestly, Mon …" she struggled for a response that wouldn't sound totally lame. "It's not that I like-like Ron, it's just that …" She tailed off, looking down at her feet, unable to meet her friend's eyes.

Her girlfriend interrupted. "What is it with you, girl? For the last few days you've been behaving like you ate a moldy naco. Did something happen between the two of you? Did he finally grow some balls? And you might want to think about a river in Egypt before you answer me."

Kim was saved from responding by a familiar four-note beep. Casting an apologetic look at Monique she fished the Kimmunicator out of her shoulder-bag and pressed the answer button. The face of a young African-American boy appeared on the screen.

"Hey, Wade," she responded with a hint of relief in her voice.

"Hi Kim." Her techie looked serious. "We've got a sighting on Dementor".

Kim stared in surprise. "I thought that GJ were taking care of Dementor this week?" _And I was getting some time off!_

Wade looked discomfited. "It's my doing, Kim. When I picked up some ATC chatter about an unauthorized flight plan to Brazil, I did some digging. Dementor's already on his way to Rio de Janeiro. Dr. Director told me yesterday that she was having to justify every vehicle requisition to the Council and by the time she gets the necessary permissions and they got mobilized we'd have lost him. You can respond quicker. I'll tell Betty so she can send a mop-up team later."

"Have you spoken to Ron?"

"No time, Kim. You'll have to do a solo run this time. A 'copter is about to pick you up – I called in a favor from the Feds."

Kim hesitated. She knew that Ron was touchy about her leaving him behind on missions, and she never felt as confident when her best friend wasn't there to watch her back. Besides, GJ protocol was to require two agents on a mission in case of unforeseen problems. At least this time she'd only have one foe to worry about and she was sure she could handle the mad Professor.

A cough drew her attention to her friend who had been patiently standing and listening. "Kim, you need to go. Guys, I'll explain to Ron that there was just no time to get him. He'll understand." _And I'll tell him about Tara too – it's the least he deserves._

Biting her lower lip, Kim nodded hesitantly and returned to the screen. "Do we know what Dementor is planning in Rio?"

The boy glanced away at another screen and then returned his attention to her. "Not exactly, but there's only one serious target in Rio. Doctor Cyrus Bortel has a lab there where he is weaponising technology. GJ have had their eye on him for ages but they've never been able to link him to any illegal activity. It has to be where Dementor is headed."

A whirring noise outside the window caught Kim and Monique's attention.

"Your ride should be there about now," came a voice from the Kimmunicator.

"Yep, I see it," Kim responded. Picking out a bag from her locker containing her mission clothes and kit she headed down the corridor towards the exterior door.

Monique watched Kim's disappearing back. _You have got some serious issues, girlfriend. You better figure out just what you want or you're going to find that this train has left the station._

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Shego grabbed Doctor Drakken and pulled him into a doorway as the security guard appeared at the end of the same corridor in the HenchCo offices where just a few hours earlier Myron had placed a call to his brother-in-law. They held their breath as the man looked up and down the corridor before walking away in the opposite direction to the hiding figures. Once he was out of sight the two villains emerged from the doorway, opposite the wall through which they had just phased.

"Okay Shego, we are looking for the dispatch office. Keep your eyes peeled and don't forget, we don't want our presence to be detected so ixnay with the plasma."

"Sure, Doctor D." Shego was liking this new, assertive Drakken. Since they had broken into the lab in Des Moines, her boss had shown a much greater tactical sense. She put this down to the Phoebus device. It appeared that whatever it was supposed to do it had done, though she still harbored a concern about some supposed malfunction. There was also the knowledge that unless they found themselves a lair – more specifically, some high-tech equipment – before the effect wore off, Drakken would not be able to make the change permanent.

And that was the purpose of this visit. After they had left Des Moines, Shego had asked how they were going to find a new lair.

"Well, Shego, we are going to 'borrow' one from one of our old acquaintances."

"How so, Doctor D? We don't know where they are." Shego was curious. The relatively competent villains like Dementor, Monkey Fist and Killigan kept the location of their lairs a closely-held secret. No doubt Global Justice had tabs on them, but she couldn't see how she and Drakken were going to find one, let alone 'borrow' it without anything in the way of resources.

"Ah, Shego, I have thought of that. Even the best-hidden lair needs some link to the outside world to be able to obtain supplies. And I know just the organization that supplies our friends."

And after some travelling, keeping below the radar and changing destinations frequently to ensure that they were not being tracked, the blue-skinned villain and his sidekick had found themselves heading for the dispatch office at HenchCo.

"Found it." Shego pointed to a wall-sign saying _Goods Entrance_ and helpfully pointing to a nearby set of sliding gates to the side of a wide door. The area beyond appeared dark through the reinforced glass, as would be expected at 5am. They entered silently and looked around.

They found themselves in a large rectangular warehouse, filled with crates and boxes, with a small office at one end. The other end opened out onto a loading bay, where several liveried HenchCo trucks were lined up beside a smaller number of unmarked black vans without license plates, the latter no doubt intended to supply Jack Hench's shyer clients.

Drakken marched without hesitation to the office, Shego in tow. The room contained half a dozen computers but Drakken ignored all but one old-fashioned PC that did not appear to have a network cable and no sign of a wifi connection.

"This will be the computer with the lairs' addresses, Shego." he said confidently. "Jack Hench wouldn't risk putting the really confidential material onto a computer with LAN or internet access. He'd be concerned that GJ or that techie kid of Possible has hacked into his network."

He looked at his sidekick. "Your turn now."

Shego sat in front of the computer and inserted a memory stick into the sole USB port. The stick contained a password cracking program of her own creation – one of the few items she had managed to retrieve from their previous lair – and it took her less than two minutes to break the code. She smiled at Jack Hench's choice of password – PossibleKim666. Indeed, their annoyingly persistent teen foe was something of the devil to the villain community.

Once in, it took her no time at all to locate the file containing the dispatch addresses and its password was cracked as easily. Drakken looked over her shoulder as she scrolled through the list of villains and their addresses. She was surprised to see just how many they were. While some of the recipients were well-known to the duo – the Seniors, Duff Killigan, Camille Leon, Professor Dementor – others were new to them – Fukushima, Aviarius, Gemini, The Death-Dealer, Doctor Doom, The Fearless Ferret and many others. It seemed as though the take-over-the-world game was more popular than she realized.

Dr. Drakken scanned the list again quickly and settled on one name – Professor Dementor. Noting the address in a pocket book he was about to tell Shego to shut the machine down when his eye fell on a familiar address.

"Now that's interesting," Drakken commented, looking at a client identified only as 'Bourne' but whose address he recognized as the Toronto branch office of Global Justice. "Seems like Betty has a little black ops going on north of the border. I wonder if she knows about it?"

"Now shut down this computer," he ordered his sidekick.

"Don't you want to copy the file, Doctor D?" she responded in surprise.

"Tempting as it is, Shego, this computer is bound to have write-protection and to record any attempts to copy the files. But never fear, we will be back for the entire list in due course. I don't want any other villains at large thinking they can grab a slice of the action when I declare my Emperorship of the planet."

Shego hesitated, and then spoke to Drakken. "Grab that one too," – pointing to the Bourne details. He looked at her in surprise.

"I have an idea that I'd like to explore," she explained.

Looking doubtful, Drakken nevertheless recorded the Toronto address and dispatch numbers in his notebook. Shego closed the file without saving and initiated the shut-down procedure. No-one would know that the computer had been compromised.

"Okay, let's get out of here."

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Kim kept to the shadows as she approached the unprepossessing laboratory set into the hills on the outskirts of Rio. She had been dropped off by the helicopter two miles away from the site of Doctor Bortel's facility and had traversed the remaining distance by foot to avoid detection.

She paused and looked about. There was no sign of any intrusion and she was beginning to wonder if Wade's information was incorrect. She shook her head. Wade was _never_ wrong. It must be that Dementor had not arrived yet. She would conceal herself and wait for his arrival, then grab him before he could attempt to break in.

Her attention was grabbed by the sound of a loud sonic boom. Spinning round she saw a flying craft sail past her at supersonic speed and stop within its own length directly above the laboratory. It must have had some sort of inertial damping system else anyone on board would have been crushed by the deceleration forces. As she broke into a run she saw a circular beam descend from the craft and the sound of falling masonry indicated that the beam was creating an opening in the roof of the building.

Inside the building, Cyrus Bortel was working at his bench on a small green device that was displaying a yellow grinning face. He pushed a button, and started laughing manically. Pushing another button, the laugh stopped abruptly and he burst into tears, before pressing the button again. His face returned to normal, and he smiled as he removed a tiny circular patch from his neck.

"It works!" he chortled. "I wonder how much Jack Hench will pay for my moodulator?" He considered. "Or should I offer it to the highest bidder – will Global Justice be willing to outbid the FSB?" His eyes gleamed at the thought of the fortune that awaited him as he carefully placed the moodulator and its remote control on a book shelf to his right.

The sound of a collapsing ceiling caused him to leap to one side as chunks of plaster fell to the ground. Through the open roof he could see a hovering craft, and as he stared in disbelief three figures rappelled down ropes and landed in front of him. His attention was drawn to the smallest of the intruders, an almost cartoon-like character wearing a helmet that covered most of his head and face and who was flanked by two burly heavies with scarred faces suggesting that this was not their first mission.

Professor Dementor stepped up to the hapless scientist and grabbed him by the tie, pulling his head down to stare him in the eyes.

"Ze Electron Magneto Accelerator, mein Herr, if you please. Und no tricks, bitte!"

Dr. Bortel looked involuntarily to his left and the intruder's eyes followed, lighting up as he saw an electromechanical device sitting on the shelf.

"Ah, I vill be borrowing dis leetle toy, Herr Doktor." Dementor directed his minions to pick up the EMA, ignoring Bortel's protests.

"Not so fast, Dementor," came a female voice from the other side of the room as the girl who could do anything ran into the room and took up a fighting pose.

"Ach, not again zat annoying hussy who hass been interfering VUN TOO MANY TIMES!" screamed the German villain as his two companions turned to face Kim, flexing their muscles as they prepared to rush her. Cyrus Bortel took the opportunity of the distraction to flee the room by the only door.

The redhead smiled at her would-be assailants. "Bring it on," she goaded as one of the henchmen ran toward her, taking a swing at her head as he got within range.

"Didn't your parents teach you not to hit girls?" Kim said playfully as she deflected the blow with ease and spun on the ball of her left foot. Her right foot swung round and caught the henchman in the small of his back, sending him sprawling across the room and crashing into the wall head first, where he collapsed into a pile.

As his companion ran at her, she glanced up and frowned when she saw Professor Dementor running across the room toward the EMA. She started to call for Ron to stop him before remembering that she was on her own.

The slight distraction was enough for the second henchman to breach her defenses and slam his fist into her stomach, throwing her backwards into the wall, causing the contents of the bookshelf above her head to tumble down onto her. Coughing and gasping for breath, she stood up painfully and shook her head to clear her mind.

Kim failed to notice the tiny translucent disk, glowing red, which had attached itself to the back of her neck. She knew only that a red mist of anger descended on her as she saw the cause of her pain. She yelled incoherently and ran at the man, swinging wildly. A lucky blow connected with his chin and he fell, unconscious before he hit the ground. Her fury was unabated and she kicked him in the ribs again and again, growling as his body shook with each blow.

A green remote control lay buried under a pile of books that had fallen from the shelf. As the pile settled, a sliding book pressed out of sight against a large button. Kim's temper vanished immediately and a wave of guilt beset her as she saw the broken body lying in front of her.

_Oh god, what have I done?_

Her face was stricken as she looked across the room. There was no sign of the pint-sized villain or the EMA. A sound drew her attention to the ceiling and she grimaced as she saw her opponent grinning down at her, the EMA under one arm while his other hand held a rope securely.

"So zory that ve cannot be spending more time vid you, Fraulein Possible," he taunted. "But I have a verld to conquer. Too bad you vill not be stopping me."

Kim looked across at her backpack containing her grapple gun, but it was out of reach in the doorway. She watched in frustration as the rappelling ropes were retracted and her quarry waved at her as he disappeared into the hovering craft. Seconds later, it had vanished.

Cyrus Bortel timidly reentered the room, looking questioningly at Kim as she tied the wrists of the two insensible henchmen. She stared back at him and shook her head. He groaned.

The mission was a bust. Well, perhaps not a complete disaster. Interrogating the captured henchmen might reveal Dementor's whereabouts. Unless he had followed standard HenchCo protocol of collecting the henchmen from a central distribution point and transporting them to his lair in a windowless transport. Well perhaps they could at least pinpoint the country. That was better than nothing.

But she had failed to capture Dementor, had allowed him to purloin a dangerous device and had lost her cool badly. She could picture Betty's face when she reported on her failure. The GJ Director was not going to be happy when she learnt that Kim had gone alone. She should not have let Wade talk her into that, no matter how urgent the mission.

And why did she lose her temper so badly? If it hadn't been for that she might have been in a position to stop Dementor getting away.

_I need a break from all this – I am in real poor shape._

As she left the room silently, Bortel was searching the pile of books and other items that had been knocked off the shelves in the struggle. He found the remote control but despite a frantic search there was no sign of the moodulator, which must have been destroyed in the fight.

"The EMA and the moodulator! I've got nothing to sell now," he bemoaned. He pocketed the now redundant remote control, unknowingly pressing a pink button as he did so.

Kim sat forlornly on her flight home, going over the mission in her head again and again. She still couldn't figure out why she had got so emotional and nearly killed the second henchman. And she was forced to recognize that without her sidekick she had been unable to stop Dementor and deal with the henchman at the same time.

"Oh Ron, I'm sorry I listened to Wade and left you behind," she whispered.

And at the thought of her best friend she suddenly felt her heart flip as an unfamiliar warmth flooded her and her eyes softened.


End file.
